Coll 28/97 ‘Persia. Diaries. Tehran Intelligence Summaries’ [‎180r] (359/749)

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April 28, 1944.
Section 1 .
17 may 1944
Copy No. _{
Sir R. Bullard to Mr. Eden.—(Received 28^A April)
(No. 171.) . . ,
HIS Majesty’s representative presents his compliments to His Majesty s
Principal Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs, and has the honour to transmit
herewith a copy of Intelligence Summary for the period of the 10th to the
16th April, 1944, compiled by the military attache to this legation.
Tehran, \7th April, 1944.
Enclosure.
Military Attache's Intelligence Sumrnary No. 15 for the period \tith April
to MSth April, 1944.
(Secret.)
Persian Affairs.
Political.
AFTER more than a week’s futile debating by the Majlis of its programme
the Government was given a vote of confidence by 69 of the 90 members present,
9 voting against the Government and 12 abstaining. There is a larger majority
than was at first expected, since 27 members had announced their intention of
speaking and voting against the Government. That was perhaps due more to
the desire of budding parliamentarians to secure an opportunity of airing their
theories and gaining some publicity than to any conviction that in present
circumstances the defeat of the Government would lead to anything oetter.
During the debate Dr. Millspaugh and his colleagues came in for much criticism
i and it is clear that the dissatisfaction with them is deep and widespread. Such
defence of them as was attempted was half-hearted and did not go much further
than to claim that Dr. Millspaugh himself meant well and that in principle an
American advisory mission was desirable for the finance and economy of the
country, if only for the purpose of keeping alive American interests in and
sympathy with Persia.
2. Seyyid Zia’s relatively vigorous personality is creating some impression
and causing some concern. The Court fears that he is imbued with hostility to
the Shah and that he is determined to endeavour to bring about a limitation of
the Shah’s part in the affairs of Government to that of a strictly constitutional
monarch. The Shah has perhaps an uneasy conscience, for he knows that it is
believed by Seyyid Zia and many others that he encouraged Dr. Musaddiq to
oppose the acceptance of Seyyid Zia’s election to the Majlis and that he arranged
for the hostile" demonstration of factory An East India Company trading post. workers outside the Majlis on that
occasion. Suspicious as he always has been that Seyyid Zia could not entertain
friendly sentiments for the son of Reza Shah he now finds added reason to fear
some act of revenge. There are others, too, who fear the effects on the country
of a struggle between Seyyid Zia and his supposedly increasing band of followers
on the one hand and the Shah and his paid intriguers on the other; others, the
rich, who fear the advent to power of Seyyid Zia; and others who expect that if
Seyyid Zia looked like being successful the Russians would attempt a coup d'Etat
to prevent this victory of British policy. Several requests have recently been
made by influential Persians to His Majesty’s Ambassador that he should mediate
to effect a reconciliation between Seyyid Zia and the Shah. The Shah is
perturbed. For some time he has had no indications of any particular concern
on the part of the Russians for his welfare. He suspects, possibly with good
cause, that the Russians have taken offence at the Persian refusal to accept the
conditions that were attached to the Russian offer of tanks and aircraft—see
[53—17]